it was brought about by a roman general who worshipped, not jesus, but apollo, the god of the sun. >> one of the most surprising christian heroes in the entire tradition, i think, is constantine. he is, first of all, a successful general. he is, also, the son of a successful general and at the head of the army of the west, and he's fighting another successful general, struggling for who is going to be at the top of the heap of this... the very higher echelons of roman government. what happens is that constantine has a vision. >> in the dream, a cross appears on the sun. the sun was very important to constantine, anyway. he had a thing about helios and very often represented himself with the sun god. but the intrusion of the cross was... was something new, and below this vision was an... was an inscription, were the words "by this, conquer," en touto nike. and he interpreted this dream to mean that, by this symbol of the cross, he could defeat his... his archenemy at the battle of the milvian bridge and become sole emperor. and so he had his-- so the story goes-- he had his soldiers pa